open letter to a friendly conservative

I read this blog post this morning by a Conservative voter. I found it interesting because it's the same in the US. People voting for conservatives who really don't work for them. Why? Because they think some day they'll be rich. So I wrote this to try and explain to this blogger what it's all about. _____________________________________________________

Hi Dave, I found this post very interesting. You make some good points. Especially about the Labour message being 'for vulnerable people and against the rich.' That message assumes a certain amount of compassion. A certain lack of self interest. Obviously people are self-interested. It also assumes long sightedness, a view towards things that could go wrong.

Here's the thing. The Conservatives have shown no compassion. So say you get hit by a car and you're laid up for months and can't work. What then? Labour hoped you'd want a system that would protect you, both when you were working and if you couldn't. But people apparently can't envision anything happening to them. They think bad things only happen to other people. (Maybe that should be Labour's motto: Because you are much more likely to get in a car accident than to win the lotto. )

The system that Labour supports (and the Greens even moreso) is a kind of social insurance. It's there for when bad things happen. It's not that Labour is not in favour of workers. In fact, labour = work. The rich are not workers. They make money from money. The rich are typically the biggest beneficiaries of the social welfare system. Why do the rich use the NHS? They don't need to. They can afford private insurance. They can even pay out of pocket. The truth is that the UK has better medical care through the NHS than through private doctors. All the money that's pooled in the NHS buys cutting edge technologies and skillsets. Private doctors can't compete. Otherwise I don't think you'd catch the rich using it, rubbing shoulders with the plebs.

Workers typically don't have to worry about being rich and having the government take it off them. The reason Labour focusses on the most vulnerable is because there are plenty of people who can't help or speak for themselves. They're too busy trying to stay alive and not being homeless or hungry. Labour supposes that people are inherently good and want the best for everyone, not just themselves. Labour believes in heroes. Conservative media [read media companies owned by ultra-rich people] spin a lot of propaganda telling people that the poor are putting them at risk. The media and Conservative politicians play on people's fears.

The truth is people who work are better for any government, Labour or Conservative, than people who don't. Very poor people who can't work and become homeless and seriously ill are extra bad for any government. But it's wrong to blame those people. It's wrong not to help them. It could happen to any of us. Sickness, accidents, any sort of financial disaster, and we are all there. That's what government's in a position to do that no one else is -- help people who need help, while helping workers get and keep jobs, helping companies employ people, making sure public services are up to snuff. And slightly redistributing wealth through tax in order to pay for all of it. The Conservatives have failed at most of this. Fail at any of it, and a government fails a society.

I don't buy your NHS arguments. Doctors and nurses are frightened of how much funding has been cut. They've seen behind the curtain. There's a lot of waste in the system. I've seen it with my own eyes. But the Conservatives are not actually making that part any better. They're making it worse as they farm out services to private companies who aren't at all interested in saving the NHS money, but want their cut of the pie. Apparently you don't have a serious illness or know anyone who does or you'd be more aware of this.

Of course everyone has dreams. Labour has taken that as read, mate. They don't think they need to tell you that. Everyone apparently imagines someday they'll be rich and doesn't imagine that someday they'll be disabled. We don't dream of being disabled or broke. Ask any disabled person whether they thought they were going to be disabled ten years before it happened. NO. They dreamed of being rich, too. They dreamed of being useful, of lives with meaning. They are you, ten years on. Or however many. Just by a fluke of fate.

But the biggest thing you've missed is that only 36% of votes went to Conservatives. So why did they win? Because since the last election enough districts have been rearranged to lump Conservative voters together. And England pissed off Scotland. Maybe this was even done on purpose by Conservatives, knowing it would lead to Scottish voters trying to find another path to independence. IUt's no secret that losing Scotland would likely lead to a Conservative majority. And people like you, who bought the propaganda. Who thought their own lives and livelihoods were at risk if there was a social safety net in place that kept the poorest safe. And who can blame you, really? Millions of pounds were spent to make sure you felt that way.

There is also the 'man in rolled up shirt sleeves' image that Cameron projected. For some reason, that particular trick makes people feel trust. Make no mistake. David Cameron is the devil in a button down shirt. He would throw you off the boat to save his own skin and his friends' skins without even an eye blink. You have elected your own enemy. Never mind the most vulnerable. You're a worker. That is all you are to him. A drone in a hive. That's all any of us are as long as we work. If we stop working, we become scum. No excuses. Kill the weak. That's not what you thought you were voting for, is it? But it's what you've got.

See you on the street corner one day, mate, when the work has all been farmed out to the cheapest countries and we can't afford healthcare or rent. We can beg coins off passersby together and get a cuppa and you can tell me I was wrong.